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On behalf of Owney the Dog, our famed four-legged friend, the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum cordially invites you to the Dog Days of Summer Family Festival!

The program activities will take place throughout the museum on Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. both days.

Owney was a scruffy mutt taken in by the clerks at the Albany, New York post office in the late 1800s. Fond of sleeping and sitting atop mail bags, Owney began to accompany the mail carriers on their routes — by foot, on wagons and carriages and eventually on trains all across North America.

Lovable Owney became a national celebrity, delighting the public with stories of his adventures, and — if they were lucky — a visit by Owney himself!

In 1895, Owney even made a four-month, around-the-world trip aboard a mail steamship. The United States Postal Service commemorated Owney with his own postage stamp in 2011, celebrating this most fascinating postal pup in a most postal way.

Inspired by Owney’s remarkable life, the Dog Days of Summer Family Festival highlights his travels, as well as explores the unique role that animals have played in the postal system over time.

For the second year, we’ve teamed up with Amtrak Police for demonstrations throughout the day showcasing the work of the intelligent and hardworking K-9 units.

We’re also proud to host local animal welfare organizations such as Homeward Trails Animal Rescue for an Adoption Fair on Saturday.

Join us for a fun weekend of educational and hands-on activities at your neighborhood museum! The program is free, open to all ages and includes the following activities; (more…)

This column is written by D.C. Realtor and resident Sean Forschler.  Licensed in DC, MD & VA, he has been in the business since 2001 and currently works at RLAH Real Estate. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Before answering this question, you need to first understand what “title” is in reference to property.

In the simplest terms, it means ownership. When you take title to something, you take ownership, like when you get the title to a car. When a property is being purchased, the title company (a.k.a. settlement company) researches the public records to verify that the ownership of the subject property has been legally transferred from party to party.

Over the years, mistakes in these records happen. Such a search can also turn up unreleased mortgages and other liens on the property, like a tax lien or mechanics lien.

Title searches revealing such defects are common enough and generally, quite fixable. However, even the most careful and thorough title searches can miss important information and hazards, despite the knowledge and experience of professional title examiners.

Title problems may exist that cannot be disclosed in a search. For example, if 16-year old signed documents transferring the property to another owner, this would be a problem since that person was a minor. Or, say a couple divorces and one of them sells the property as a sole owner and pockets the proceeds. Not legal! (more…)

By Fairfax Employment Lawyer Tom Spiggle, founder of The Spiggle Law Firm.

Legislators in Virginia will have to begin adhering to yearly sexual harassment training if a bill passed by the House in February also passes the Senate.

The bill was contentiously debated in the House for a week before being passed in a vote of 88 – 10. Prior to the new bill, sponsored by Republican Delegate Roxann Robinson, Democrat Delegate Vivian Watts had pushed for her own sexual harassment bill only to have it voted down.

That bill included a reporting and investigative process as well as protection for sexual orientation and gender identity. She was one of the ten Democrats that voted against Robinson’s bill.

Watts also wanted to make changes to the Republican bill, stating that it was still not enough to protect women. She stated that the requirements of the bill were simply “window dressing” in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The changes Watts called for were voted down in a 50-49 vote.

Republicans in the House were surprised that the vote had taken a partisan turn. The argument was that both Robinson and Watts had the same agenda and were trying to accomplish the same thing.

The bill as it stands will require all General Assembly members and their staff to complete an online sexual harassment training course every year. This is vastly different from the current rule that legislators only have to complete a training course one time after they are first elected.

“The bill is an important one as we can all agree that people, both men and women, need this kind of protection. It is clear that Virginia is serious about the matter, particularly when comparing this bill with Virginia’s current requirement, and with other states,” says Virginia sexual harassment attorney Tom Spiggle of The Spiggle Law Firm. “Maryland only requires legislators to complete the training once every four years. And even in D.C., the training is only required once every two years.”

The bill has not been made into law yet, however. Now that is has passed in the House it will go before the state Senate. If it passes the Senate it, then it must be signed by Governor Ralph Northam. Once the bill officially becomes law, the clerks of the House and the Senate will be responsible for creating the courses. The training would have to begin by July of 2019.

By Maryland Wrongful Death Attorney Glenn Ivey with Price Benowitz LLP.

On July 12, 2017, John Bernecker was working as a stuntman on the set of AMC’s The Walking Dead when he fell 20 feet onto a concrete floor and sustained a serious head injury.

After he was rushed to an Atlanta hospital his family decided to take him off life support on July 16 after seeing no hope for a recovery. He succumbed to his injuries and died shortly after. He was 33 at the time of his death.

In January of 2018, his mother, Susan Bernecker filed a wrongful death lawsuit against AMC and the production company Stalwart Films. A number of others were also named in the suit including directors, executive producers, production managers, and stunt managers involved with the episode John Bernecker was filming when he died.

In the lawsuit Bernecker states that her son’s death was due to the fact that the network took shortcuts during production in order to keep the costs low. These shortcuts she states, directly and negatively affected her son, as one of the areas cut in the budget pertained to the stunts being performed on the set.

One of the shortcuts taken, according to Bernecker, was that there were not spotters around a padded area John was supposed to land on after another actor pushed him over a railing. The actor was directed not to touch John so he could land on a padded area. The actor did touch John though and the trajectory of his fall changed, forcing him to land on an area that was not protected with a padded mat. Had there been spotters, argues Bernecker, the mat could have been moved and her son’s life could have been saved.

The lawsuit was filed in Gwinnett County State Court in Georgia. In a statement Bernecker said that she filed the lawsuit because she was looking for justice for her son. While AMC has issued a statement indicating the loss they and audiences will feel in the wake of John’s death, they have not commented on the lawsuit.

“Being a stuntman can be a dangerous job,” says Glenn Ivey of Price Benowitz LLP. “But that does not mean that anyone should lose their life over it. If the lawsuit is successful, Susan Bernecker will not only receive compensation. She may change the way studios and television networks operate going forward.”